Two Christmas Stories

Matthew 2:1-12

Epiphany

January 5, 2014

Christ has been born,

the savior has come into the world

the light has shattered the darkness

And now everyone is happy,

and all it takes is for the wise men to follow the star

and find the child, spread the good news far and wide.

Everything else goes absolutely smoothly.

Maybe we could believe that

if we just read Luke’s version of the birth of Jesus

like we do on Christmas Eve.

We could enjoy the sights of shepherds,

angels, heavenly hosts,

quiet mangers and holy families.

But Matthew’s gospel doesn’t

let us get away that easily.

In Matthew’s story, the birth of Jesus isn’t just a family affair,

it’s not just a miraculous birth of a boy

who will do things when he grows up.

In Matthew, the birth of Jesus almost immediately

sends ripples through the world,

not all of them good ripples either.

Of course we know about

the wise men who see the star in the sky and understand

that this indicates that the messiah has been born.

The Three Wise Men
Bowing With Gifts In Hand,
Penny Pausch ...

And even though they
are not of the Jewish faith

they see the sign and they want to pay their respects to him,

This scene is familiar enough
pleasant enough

To show up in our nativity scenes,

the picture of three kings bowing to a baby.

Giving gifts to him.

And Matthew’s birth story would be a pleasant enough

and full of joy and peace, if this were the end.

But to help them find where this baby is,

the wise men go to the person that they assume

will be in the know about the event --King Herod --

the man who has been appointed the king of the Jews.

But it turns out Herod is not excited that the hopes

and prophecies of his ancestors are coming true.

He is not to have this baby born in his kingdom.

Massacre of the Innocents, Fra Angelico, 1451

He’s not overjoyed
that the messiah has come -

about the light scattering the darkness.

It says that at this news that
Herod was frightened

and not just him, but all of Jerusalem with him.

To think that Herod just didn’t understand

the importance of this birth
would be nieve I think.

Herod understood,
he understood all too well

maybe more than some others.

The birth of the Messiah didn’t just mean

light and fulfillment of everyone’s hopes.

the birth of the Messiah meant,

a different reality, God coming into the world.

it means justice and that means change.

It means that things would be different

that the lowly would be raised

and the powerful would be tumbled down.

And Herod was the powerful.

Herod’s fear had already driven him to kill

several close family members.

And his fear of the Messiah led him to do the unspeakable.

Which is the second part of the world’s reaction to Jesus birth

in Matthew’s story.

 

Herod had his people kill all the children in and around Bethlehem

who were two years and younger.

Some say it was 20 deaths, some say it was 10,000.

Some say it never happened at all.

But it doesn’t matter, we have seen enough leaders react

out of fear and paranoia and a need for control.

We have seen enough killing in our lifetime

we have seen enough innocents slaughtered

to know that even if Matthew isn’t talking about a historical event,

Matthew is telling us a Truth.

Matthew knows, the good news of the birth of

Jesus the Messiah, is not good news to everyone

Everyone who understands the importance

does not automatically react with joy and worship.

Everyone does not risk everything and follow Jesus way.

The wise men understood the news

and they sought it out, they embraced the possibility joyfully,

knelt down to worship, offered their gifts to the cause.

Hero understood the news of the birth

and lashed out in violence in an attempt

to control the situation and maintain the old way.

The foreign, pagan, wise men chose to step

into the mystery and embrace it,

But the king who spoke the words of Jesus’s own religion

chose to violently maintain the status quo.

In these first chapters, Matthew is getting us ready

for the end of the story of Jesus

where religion and power come together again

and eventually put Jesus to death.

 

Now we can come to a conclusion, which some have,

that the world is divided into two kinds of people

that the good people just choose the wise men’s route

And those evil people choose Herod’s way,

But isn’t it closer to the truth that both exist

are in each of us?

Don’t we all have the propensity for worship with our whole selves

to embrace the unknown, to risk going wherever God leads us?

But don’t we also have the inclination to try and control,

to even support violence at times

if it maintains our comfort, our status quo?

We all have the ability to embrace God’s justice and rule and will

and to turn it away, ignore it, rebel against it.

We all make that choice every day.

Matthew’s story is about the world’s journey of faith.

It’s about the many ways that we can react to

the good news of Jesus Christ.

And it’s about what God needs from God’s people:

Not people who are slaves to their fears

who cling to power and violence and control.

but wise people who risk things to follow stars.

God needs people  who are willing to follow

uncertain things with certainty,

God wants us to follow that star that

looks like all the other stars to everyone else,

but that we’re sure in our hearts means something.

God needs us to follow that star even if it means

a loss of our own power and our own status our own comfort.

The messiah has come to us,

Christ has been born,

the savior has come into the world

the light has shattered the darkness.

Let us embrace this, risk the unknown, and follow Jesus.